


A Gourd Time

by Hyacinthus



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series)
Genre: Gen, Pumpkins, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-08-07 04:26:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16401296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyacinthus/pseuds/Hyacinthus
Summary: Two furret siblings go to a nearby town for their Halloween night.





	A Gourd Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spoke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spoke/gifts).



Juniper didn’t go into the human town, but this year she had promised her brother he could lure her away from her long grasses for the human holiday. The rest of the pack had chittered excitedly for weeks - humans would leave food lying around, and no one paid any attention if you took some. The queens gossiped together about the slices of fruit and apricorns while the kits ran around, squeaking their tiny lungs out as they tumbled over each other. She listened to their cries while scanning the sky; it wouldn’t do to be remiss in her guard duty, even tonight. A soft crackling on the grass caught her ear, and she whirled around.

“I know the best spots for tonight, Juniper.” The fur on her back stood down as Juniper hopped off her tail, going to touch noses with Cypress.

“You know I’m on guard duty,” Juniper said to her brother, a hint of reproach in her voice.

“Only until the sun reaches the big tree, and it’s nearly there. You could get an early start to the night.” Cypress flashed a grin, carefree as he always was.

“It’ll be your hide if a Fearow comes and eats some kits. I’ll meet you at the hollow log soon, go on.” Juniper stood back up on her tail. She’d been remiss in her duty for too long, and had scared herself back into duty. There would be time for fun later, when Fir came for her shift.

Cypress bumped his tail against hers, a good-bye greeting they’d used since kithood. “Don’t think I won’t leave you behind!” he called as he walked away.

The human settlement looked livelier than Juniper had ever seen it. The customary scent of cherries floated through the air, overlapping with excited human and pokemon. There were humans everywhere, walking from house to house with their kits, stopping to chat with each other. It was more like pack than Juniper had thought humans could be.

Cypress tugged on her paw with his own. “C’mon, while the humans are all busy!” He scampered forward, surprising Juniper; her paws caught in the soft loamy earth and she struggled to catch up with him, following his tail as he turned corners. Just when she thought he was lost, Juniper heard him exclaim “here!” She picked up her nose and caught his scent on the breeze. A few human dwellings down, she thought, and her estimate was spot-on. She climbed up the human-built structures, finding Cypress standing in a small enclosed field.

As she hopped down from the side of the wood enclosure, she caught another scent on the wind. It was a fruity scent, one she had caught whiffs of in years past. Earthy, she decided, not as sweet as the green apricorns that were scattered around the pack’s territory. She scurried down to Cypress, eager to get to her brother and unaware of anything but - a face! Juniper startled, hissing at the sudden appearance. It was mean, eyes slanted and mouth a cruel slash. She lashed out, nails sharpening for a scratch. The face vanished under her attack, cut in pieces.

When the adrenaline wore off, she heard Cypress laughing. “You attacked a pumpkin!” He rolled in the foreign grass, one leg kicking in amusement.

“It had a face,” Juniper muttered, only now realizing that her paws were covered in the scent of the fruit she’d smelled earlier. She moved cautiously forward. The parts of the fruit failed to move. She licked one. It tasted like it smelled, perhaps a little tarter than she’d expected.

Cypress recovered from his laughing fit and joined her, grabbing his own mouthful. “It’s a fruit the humans get for today,” he said when he came up for air, whiskers covered in orange. “They get it from somewhere else, I think. Tasty, huh?”

Juniper swallowed her own fruit. “Why did it have a face?”

“Human thing. Maybe it’s like those ghost-types that one foreign pokemon told us about.” Cypress bent his head back down.

“I don’t like it.”

“You don’t like anything - eat your fruit.”

Once they had each eaten their fill, they headed back to the pack’s territory, full bellies slowing them down. Other members of the pack greeted them along the way, touching noses, each smelling of the human town. Cypress made some small talk as they made their way back to their dens.

The familiar-smelling tunnels were all that Juniper needed to let the bit of tension she was carrying out of her body. Her packmates slept in their usual way, in piles of fur spread about the pack’s big cavern. She and Cypress made their way to their group, nudging their friends for room. They curled up, content with their packmates.

“G’night, Juniper,” Cypress mumbled into Fir’s back. “Night, Cypress,” she said, brushing her tail against her brother’s before surrendering herself to the night’s sweet sleep.  


End file.
